Saturday, May 9, 2015

Military Museum, Venice Beach & American Candy

After the workout I went home and got ready to take Matt out and about for our second day of touring LA/Hollywood. First up was a museum that I had never heard of. Matt is big into History and really likes World War II Tanks. So of course he found an American Military Museum about 30 minutes away in El Monte. So we made our way out there and came upon this very interesting museum. It's not in a building but instead in an open field. The cost wasn't bad.. something like 5 bucks and they give you a white three ring binder with descriptions of each of the 178 items they had on display at this museum.

We really couldn't figure out the numbering system as they would have item 105 next to item 4, so it required alot of flipping of pages.. but they did group the items into similar categories. So you had a section for Tanks, for Trucks, for Navel Equipment and so on. As I mentioned each thing was numbered and then you look up the number in the book and get a nice description of the item. Some of these items were old and falling apart while some looked like they were taken care of. Some of the items were movie props, one in particular that I liked was an ambulance from the movie MASH.

It was fun roaming around this area with Matt as he knew alot of information about many of these things. They even had items there from the 1800's.

This wouldn't have been my usual thing to do here in SoCal but I'm so happy Matt found this place. If there are any other fans of Military things this is definitely a place to visit.

Afterwards we headed to Venice beach. Venice Boardwalk was on Matt's list of things to do. While driving over there we stopped by a Taco Bell for lunch (again this was his first ever Taco Bell), he enjoyed it. We then went over to Rite Aid and got him a bunch of "American" candy bars, he's never had a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, or a Hersey's Bar or Junior Mints or even a Butterfinger.. so we fixed that.

Once in Venice we parked and walked the entire boardwalk. What was great is that it lived up to what he expected. Lots of crazy locals.. he'd look at me, like did I just see that and I'd just smile and say yep.. that happened. It was nice outside and a bit warm, being in the mid 70's. After the boardwalk we walked down to the ocean so he could put his foot in the Pacific for the first time. We walked along the beach back to the car. It was a nice walk, though I ran out of steam about halfway back to the car (it's tough walking in sand).

We were about five minutes from the car when Matt mentioned that it's been two hours and I had parked at a meter that was about to expire. I figured we'd get there a few minutes late but it should be okay. Well as soon as we are about 20 feet from the car a meter maid comes rolling around in her car and pulls up next to my, now expired, meter. I quicken my pace and as she was getting out and pulling out your ticket machine I come up next to her, apologize and say it just expired. Now things could have gone two ways.. she could have said "it's too late I've already started the ticket" or she could have smiled and nodded.. I'm happy to say she did the latter.

Matt and I were drained after walking around so much that we decided to head back to my place to rest for a bit and then decide on what we would do next. We debated on going to Griffith Observatory or see a movie at Citywalk IMAX but in the end we (or I) was so tired after a grueling workout and then walking around for hours I was done for the day. I felt bad as I knew Matt wanted to explore more of the city but I just couldn't do it. We grabbed some dinner at Wienerschnitzel, Matt had never had a corn dog before (so deprived :) and we also tried a few of his new candy bars, he seemed to enjoy everything. I still debated on taking him out again but luckily I was saved as he had made plans to go out on the town with Bel.. I was off the hook :) But I also told him that I'm a middle aged gay man, probably not the best person to hangout with at a bar trying to pick up the ladies.

Again like with Thursday we didn't do a ton of sight seeing but we got a good amount in and we still have an entire day for sightseeing tomorrow.

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About Me

Hi, I'm Kenny and I live in North Hollywood, California. I work in the entertainment industry as a post production supervisor for TV. I'm also the Founder and CEO of Geekyfanboy Productions. I'm a professional podcaster. I currently host/produce Knights of the Guild, Alien Nation The Newcomers Podcast, Confessions of a Fanboy, MASH 4077 podcast, The Geek Roundtable & My Gimpy Life. I'm a geek 100% & I love it. I love scifi, fantasy, comic books, tv, movies, action figures, collectibles, cosplay & anything else geeky. I'm an avid movie watcher, my favorites are typically Fantasy/Sci Fi, but I do enjoy all types of movies. I worked on The Guild S2 - 6. I did the DVD extras for Seasons 2 & 3 and worked on set and was an extra for Seasons 2 - 6. Another big obsession of mine is collecting, action figures, comic books, etc... I have a thing for Movie/TV related items. And lastly I'm a proud gay man happily living my life in this geeky world.

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